Updated: The next generation of USB: Apple's MacBook is first, but it won't be alone

Introduction, speed and versatility

The familiar USB port is changing – it looks different, it's faster and higher power than ever, and it can do a lot more than just connect USB devices. Switching to the new reversible, either-way-up USB type-C connector is just one of the changes in USB 3.1.

That's one reason Apple chose the port for its new MacBook, with its appearance being a first for the laptop world, replacing the Thunderbolt and MagSafe connectors. The advantages that will have every peripheral and device maker supporting the new connection are enough to give up the magnetic convenience of Apple's own power connector. And compared to Thunderbolt, it's smaller, it's not Apple-specific and it's easier to use.

"You don't have to worry about the orientation of the plug or the different ends of the cable; whichever way you plug it in, it will work and you don't have to worry about whether it's an A or B type cable," Jeff Ravencraft of the USB Implementers Forum told us. The connector is also smaller. "If you want to use a monitor as the dock for all your peripherals, type A USB connectors are too big, and type B was designed for phones and it doesn't work as well for other devices." It's also fast, and smart.

Peak cost

Thunderbolt came out of an Intel project called Light Peak. Originally it used Kevlar-coated fibre optic cable (with an extra copper cable for power), the familiar USB port and the same protocol as USB but it could deliver speeds from 10Gbps up to 100Gbps over cables up to 10 metres long – and the cables would have been cheaper to make than HDMI cables.

But PC makers weren't keen on the cost of the Light Peak port, which had a small laser inside, and when Apple adopted the technology for Thunderbolt it switched back to copper – and a proprietary connection for delivering power, data and video signals with (initially) 20Gbps bandwidth, which meant pricey cables, and pricey controllers.

Intel was ready to licence the port to them but PC makers didn't pick up Thunderbolt, which meant the dozens of drives, docks and video capture devices launched in 2012 never turned into hundreds or thousands of products to match USB (and if you wanted a Thunderbolt display, the only real choice was Apple).

USB 3.0 didn't quite match Thunderbolt on speed but with the much bigger PC market to sell to, USB 3.0 peripherals became common. You can drive displays as well, if they have a DisplayLink chip. At CES 2015 we saw two 4K displays connected to the same PC over a 10Gbps USB 3.0 connection.

Speed and versatility

USB 3.1 with the type-C connector will initially be 10Gbps. But "this will scale beyond 20Gbps data rates," Ravencraft told us, "this connector will support that." The big advantage is not just the speed, but what you can connect over the new USB.

It lets you connect many more kinds of devices, and it supports two-way connections (using the USB Dual Role specification), so you can have devices that can be a USB host, a peripheral – or both at the same time.

That will make plugging peripherals into phones and tablets a lot easier; your phone will know when to act like an external hard drive when you plug it into a notebook, and when to let you browse the external hard drive you've plugged into your phone. In fact you will be able to use your phone to play video that's stored on your PC – and even send that to another screen over Wi-Fi, using another USB feature called "media-agnostic" USB.

Media-agnostic USB is a way of having a USB connection without a USB cable, so the next USB connector after USB type-C might look like Ethernet or be wireless – or have multiple pins like the MHL (Mobile High-definition Link) to HDMI cable that can drive a 6K resolution display from your phone.

"It will allow wireless devices and docking stations to communicate over USB without a physical connection," Ravencraft explained. "You can have a device out on the cloud communicating over Wi-Fi or WiGig, but it looks like it's right here, connected by a USB cable."

You could have a remote access USB connection to peripherals, or an encrypted connection to remote storage that looks like a USB drive to your PC. Media-agnostic USB works with USB 3.1 and USB 2.0 ports, and over WiGig, Wi-Fi and WiMedia UWB connections – and maybe others in the future. "It could run over Zigbee, or you could do USB over fibre," Ravencraft suggested.

Power to the ports

Another advantage of USB type-C is two-way power, so that as well as charging your phone from your laptop – or powering a display – you can put up to 100W of power into a laptop or tablet. Even high-power notebook chargers only put out 90W and many deliver a lower wattage these days (tablets and netbooks need 18W, and many notebooks only require 36W or 60W), which means that you could power a laptop from an external battery bank or a solar panel (on a sunny day).

That's a bigger advantage for PC users, who will finally get a standard power connector instead of a different power tip for each notebook. China and the EU have already adopted microUSB as one of their standardised power connectors and they'll be adding type-C, Ravencraft believes.

Put it all together and we're expecting to see lots of USB type-C docking stations that let you power your notebook, connect external drives, drive a monitor and get a gigabit Ethernet port too.

Windows 10 will definitely support media-agnostic USB, as well as alternate mode USB and two-way power. So far, it looks as if Apple is only using alternate mode, and two-way power. It supports media-agnostic USB as well, and it would make sense to replace the Lighting connector on iPhones and iPads with USB type-C, but don't expect to hear about that until much later in the year.

Adapt and connect

If you pick up the new MacBook, be prepared to either buy a lot of new peripherals or to budget for buying adaptor cables for your external hard drives, your monitors, your Ethernet connection and even your USB sticks, because the only connector it has apart from the headphone socket is the USB port.

The transition will be easier for PC users – we saw several motherboards at CES 2015 with both USB 3.0 and USB type-C ports on board, and it's likely that only 7-inch and 8-inch tablets (and phones) will come with just USB type-C ports. The Nokia N1 tablet will have a USB type-C port – although interestingly it's only a USB 2.0 port so it doesn't get the high speed or the new multiple connections, and it's limited to 60W of power (which is enough to drive most docks).

SanDisk and LaCie have already announced USB type-C memory sticks and external hard drives, and with Windows 10 set to support the new connector there will be plenty of new peripherals and plenty of adaptors to take you from the full-size, mini and microUSB ports on your existing devices and peripherals to the new connector. As usual, USB 3.1 is backwardly-compatible with USB 2.0; you just need the cable.

So far Apple has power, USB 2.0, VGA and HDMI to USB type-C cables and adaptors, but the alternate mode in USB 3.1 that lets you connect non-USB devices to a USB type-C port means that we'll see more cables, including Ethernet, DisplayPort and today's USB ports. "You'll get type-C to A, type C to B, type C to micro A, to micro B, to DisplayPort," Ravencraft told us. "VESA already has the alternate mode spec for DisplayPort over USB and the MHL spec is coming too."

It's even possible to run the Thunderbolt protocol over USB 3.1, so USB type-C to Thunderbolt cables are a possibility.

• Why a USB type-C MacBook makes sense in a wire-free world

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